March Madness memories flood Orlando Magic players this time of year

Kyle O'Quinn will never forget his one shining moment in the NCAA Tournament.

On March 16, 2012, exactly three years ago Monday, O'Quinn and his Norfolk State Spartans teammates completed one of the biggest upsets in the history of March Madness. They shocked Missouri 86-84 and became just the fifth No. 15 seed in tournament history to beat a No. 2 seed.

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O'Quinn, now in his third season with the Orlando Magic, remains one of the most recognizable faces from that tournament — and for good reason. He scored 26 points and collected 14 rebounds in the victory, and when CBS Sports host Greg Gumbel asked him to sing the event's theme song, "One Shining Moment," O'Quinn joyfully obliged.

"I think about it all the time, especially around this time of year," O'Quinn said. "In my mind, it replays. It's always something good to look back at and look at the highlights and things. I'm asked about it a lot. Missouri's a big school, so they have a lot of alumni. A lot of people tend to gear toward the March Madness madness."

But O'Quinn isn't the only Magic player who has indelible memories of the Big Dance. Ten other current members of the Magic played in at least one NCAA Tournament game during their college careers. Channing Frye, Aaron Gordon, Ben Gordon, Tobias Harris, Devyn Marble, Andrew Nicholson, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton, Luke Ridnour and Nikola Vucevic all reached college basketball's marquee tournament.

They combined to compile a 31-18 record in 49 tournament games.

Ben Gordon accounted for many of those wins. In three seasons at UConn, his teams went 11-2 in the tournament. On April 5, 2004, his Huskies won the national title by beating Georgia Tech 82-73.

Gordon scored 21 points that night.

The victory gave him a sense of vindication.

One year earlier, the Huskies lost in the Sweet Sixteen to Texas.

Eager to atone for that loss, Gordon and his teammates entered the 2003-04 season as college basketball's preseason No. 1 team.

"When I won the ring in 2004, that was my favorite," Gordon said.

From the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament through the NCAA Tournament championship game, Gordon averaged 23.1 points per game.

"There was a lot of work that preceded that," Gordon said. "From that entire year before that, I had that vision of winning the championship in my head. Just keeping that focus, that singular focus, until the last game on April 5 — after that happened, I felt like a large load was just let off my shoulders.

"Just that whole journey kind of in its entirety — specifically, when the [NCAA] Tournament started — it was surreal."

Gordon is the only current Magic player who played in the Final Four.

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As Gordon and all of his Magic teammates would tell you, the difference in intensity between a regular-season college basketball game and an NCAA Tournament game is as wide as the massive gulf between the intensity of a regular-season NBA game and an NBA playoff game.

The significance of every single play feels magnified, they said.

Frye reached the Big Dance in each of his four seasons at Arizona. His Wildcats teams reached the Elite Eight twice, lost in the Sweet Sixteen once and fell in the Round of 64 once.

He still regrets not reaching the Final Four for coach Lute Olson.

"Just that pressure, we lived in it," said Frye, whose teams went 8-4 in the NCAA Tournament from 2002 through 2005.

"The tournament is one-game-and-done. You've only got a day or two to prepare. Anybody could get hot. Certain matchups at certain positions can change the course of a game. I think the tournament is a lot more guard-heavy than during the season. If you've got a good guard, you can win the tournament."

Oladipo played in the NCAA Tournament as a sophomore and as a junior. His teams reached the Sweet Sixteen on both occasions.

"It's just something that you can't really explain," Oladipo said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the intensity of every game, the feeling that if you lose, you're going home. If you make a run, you pretty much just live out a dream. It's crazy, man. I'm glad I got the opportunity to experience it twice when I was in college."

In 2013, with his Indiana Hoosiers seeded first in their region, he was placed on the cover of Sports Illustrated's tournament preview edition. In that cover photo, Hoosiers fans surrounded him as he smiled widely and spun a basketball on his right index finger.

James Borrego, the Magic's interim head coach, never reached the NCAA Tournament during his time as a walk-on at the University of San Diego.

But San Diego made the tournament in 2003 when he was working as a graduate assistant for coach Brad Holland.

Even now, 12 years later, Borrego remembers everything about the Toreros' run to the Big Dance. They won the West Coast Conference Tournament by defeating Gonzaga 72-63.

The selection committee made them a No. 13 seed.

"Selection Sunday was an exciting day," Borrego recalled. "I remember sitting in a dining hall with our team. It was like a pep rally. We got to find out who we were playing that day, and it was Stanford. And, then, that night I think we broke down four or five game films of Stanford just to get ready for the game."

San Diego lost to Stanford 77-69.

Reaching the NCAA Tournament was special for Borrego, partly because he grew up in Albuquerque, N.M., where the 1983 Final Four was played at The Pit, the University of New Mexico's home gym. In that year's championship game, the North Carolina State Wolfpack upset the heavily favored Houston Cougars 54-52 as the Wolfpack's Lorenzo Charles caught an airball and dunked just before time expired.

Borrego was too young to watch that game live, but stories about that game are legendary in his hometown.

"That game, in particular, always stood out," Borrego said. "It's a big part of Albuquerque's history. I think it's one of the memories of The Pit, and I remember growing up watching many games at The Pit. It's a really fun place to watch [a game]. That's where I grew my love of basketball."

Borrego's current players developed their love in basketball, in part, by watching the NCAA Tournament.

O'Quinn used to watch the tournament, too. But since he didn't start playing the sport competitively until his junior year of high school, he never thought he'd help write one of the biggest Round-of-64 Cinderella stories in tournament history.

"It was amazing," O'Quinn said. "We had nothing to lose. As seniors, we didn't want to go home. At halftime, it was tied up, so we had a chance."